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Linked Projects

Here we will provide links to other research projects that deal with aspects of environmental sustainability run by colleagues in our partner organisations.

1) ECOSSE

In the ECOSSE project a consortium led by Prof. Pete Smith and including the Macaulay Institute, CEH, Cranfield University and Rothamsted research developed a new model for simulating carbon and nitrogen changes and greenhouse gas emissions from organic soils. Details are as follows:

Organic soils include deep peats, which are composed almost entirely of a deep layer of organic material, and organo-mineral soils, which have a thinner layer of organic material overlying mineral soil layers or rock. They are important soil types in Scotland and Wales.

 

New calculations undertaken as part of this project show that organic soils in Scotland and Wales contain 2735 Mt carbon and 196 Mt carbon respectively. These estimates omit the carbon content in the mineral soils and are greater than all the carbon held in surface vegetation in the UK (114 Mt carbon). 

 

The data derived as part of this project, and other experiments on organic soils worldwide, have been used to develop a model for organic soils – ECOSSE. ECOSSE can simulate and predict greenhouse gas fluxes under various climatic and land use scenarios.

 

Rationale

  • Climate change is one of the most serious threats facing our planet, and is of concern at both UK and devolved administration levels. Accurate predictions for the effects of changes in climate and land use on GHG emissions are vital for informing land use policy.
  • Land use change and climate change can cause emissions of GHGs; for example, land use change on organic soils is estimated to be responsible for 15% of Scotland’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Organic soils are abundant in Scotland and Wales. They contain by far the majority of the soil carbon stocks in the UK  - combined they contain 3000 Mt carbon. Stock estimates were particularly uncertain below 1 m depth and the project has reduced this uncertainty for the organic soils of Scotland and Wales.
  • When carbon is lost from organic soils (as carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas responsible for climate change) there are serious consequences for the emissions of greenhouse gases. In addition, methane (an even more potent greenhouse gas), can be emitted from wet organic soils.
  • Organic soils behave very differently from mineral soils. This is primarily due to the properties of organic matter and the conditions which favour the accumulation of plant debris. These soils are subject to significant land use changes and the carbon they contain can be affected by these changes.
  • Despite the importance of organic soils, prior to this project there were no models able to adequately simulate greenhouse gas emissions from the organic soils of Scotland and Wales.
  • In this project, a model - ECOSSE – was developed to predict the impacts of changes in land use and climate change on greenhouse gas emissions from organic soils. ECOSSE stands for Estimating Carbon in Organic Soils - Sequestration and Emissions. 

 

Key Findings

  • New estimates have been derived for the amount of carbon stored in organic soils in Scotland and Wales. The data illustrate the huge pool of carbon in the organic soils of Scotland and Wales. Stock estimates have increased by over 30% for Scotland and 20% for Wales with the inclusion of organic material below 1 m depth and the improved estimates of bulk density.
  • Some uncertainty remains over soil C stocks and further validation is required to reduce this uncertainty. Remote sensing techniques may potentially be useful to update our knowledge of soil C stocks, particularly in the uplands of Scotland and Wales. It is important to have a reliable estimate for the carbon held in soils in order to be able to monitor and predict the consequences of global change on GHG emissions.
  • Measurements of greenhouse gases fluxes from organic soils (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) at three sites in Scotland and Wales over the course of the project have provided invaluable data for developing the ECOSSE model, as well as revealing some of the key factors controlling greenhouse gas emissions at each site. New data suggests that emissions from soils will increase when X conditions apply
  • Experimental work, albeit on a very limited sample of three sites, has shown for the first time a statistically significant overall loss (13%) in carbon following 25 years of birch growth on heather moorland.  Further investigation is merited.
  • New land use change matrices for Scotland and Wales for 1950s to 2000s have been derived. This has provided improved land use change information for modelling greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from land use change.
  • A resurvey of the Welsh Bronydd Mawr grassland experiment showed that carbon stocks in the brown earth soil were unaffected by 12 years of pasture de-intensification. The stock of carbon in standing litter and vegetation increased after liming stopped, even under continued grazing.
  • New evidence from this project suggests that changes in soil acidity have had a significant influence on the upland carbon cycle. The clearest effect appears to be the doubling of concentrations of dissolved organic carbon in runoff waters since the 1980s. Radiocarbon analysis shows this to be relatively new carbon

Practical Applications

  • A review of the effects of forest and woodland planting on the carbon pools and fluxes of upland organo-mineral soils under semi-natural/grazed vegetation has been undertaken. The overall conclusion (as assumed by UK carbon balance models) is that afforestation probably has little net effect on soil organic carbon stores in organo-mineral soils, but this statement is very uncertain. The review findings suggest that these soils are likely to be vulnerable to carbon losses during the tree establishment phase and through erosion losses during ground preparation. A second period of vulnerability may be associated with forest harvesting both through physical disturbance and accelerated leaching losses of dissolved organic carbon. The effect of current forestry best-practice at these vulnerable times has yet to be quantified.
  • Suggested guidance for management of new forests and woodlands include minimising ground disturbance, maintaining as much vegetation cover during establishment as possible and encouraging rapid re-vegetation after felling. Evidence from the National Soil Inventory in England and Wales, together with limited evidence from international studies suggests that broadleaved trees maybe more beneficial for soil carbon than conifers. This appears to contradict the results of experimental work undertaken as part of this project. Further research is required before guidance on species choice can be recommended.
  • Based on outputs achieved as part of this study an evidence base is provided for the development of guidance on the management of organic soils in Scotland and Wales. Modelled estimates of the consequences of different land management practices will help to choose those management practices that protect organic soils and reduce GHG emissions from organic soils. For example having the ability to predict the effecting of liming and increased stock densities can be useful for decision making

The legacy of ECOSSE

  • The funding for this project from the Scottish Executive and the National Assembly for Wales has enabled the development of a model that can simulate and predict GHG emissions from organic soils.
  • The project has generated interest from researchers internationally who intend to use the ECOSSE model for application to organic soils outside the UK.
  • The UK Meteorological Office (Hadley Centre) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) QUEST programme have recognised the necessity for the ECOSSE model and the importance of GHG emissions from organic soils. Outputs from this project are already being used to understand better the role of organic soils in the global carbon cycle within those ongoing programmes.
  • The ECOSSE model will form a central plank in assessing GHG emissions from soils in future UK, Scottish and Welsh inventories. Funding has been secured to develop ECOSSE further for use in future GHG inventories, which are reported to the United Nations under the Framework Convention on Climate Change for the UK.

ECOSSE Final Report web site link: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/03/16170508/0

2) JULES / QUERCC

In the QUERCC project (Quantifying Ecosystem Roles in the Carbon Cycle – part of the NERC QUEST programme) and in the wider scientific community, we are developing a C and N module based on the ECOSSE project for the JULES (Joint UK Land Environment Simulator) land surface component of the Quest Earth Systems Model (QESM) which is used for coupled carbon cycle climate modelling. Details are as follows:

The global economic mitigation potential of the agricultural sector over the next 100 years is comparable to that of energy supply, transport and industry; only the building sector surpasses agriculture. However, the uncertainty in the calculation of emissions from agricultural practices remains high. This is partly due to uncertainty in the predicted changes in climate. However, it is also due to over-simplistic representations of land management and soil organic matter turnover in many dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs). The soil is a highly dynamic system, responding in a complex way to land management and the external environment. Therefore, during the last three years, we have been working towards a full dynamic link between an established model of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) turnover in the soil (SUNDIAL/ECOSSE), the UK community land surface model (JULES, developed from the TRIFFID plant model and the MOSES surface exchange model)  with the eventual aim of including SUNDIAL/ECOSSE in the latest Hadley Centre GCM, HadGEM2.

SUNDIAL is a field-scale model of soil C and N turnover in the soil plant system. It was originally developed using the C pools in the soil organic matter model, RothC to simulate N dynamics in mineral soils under arable and horticultural crops. More recently it has been extended to include both mineral and organic soils under grassland, forestry and semi-natural/natural systems and to function using the limited data that is available at the national or regional scale (ECOSSE model).

The model includes simple descriptions of all of the major processes of carbon and nitrogen turnover in the soil / plant system. This ensures that the model is process-based, but functional at a range of scales, requiring few approximations to obtain input data. The soil organic matter is described using three pools; the actively decomposing organic matter (BIO), the slowly decomposing organic matter (HUM), and the inert organic matter (IOM), which does not decompose. Plant material from different land uses is defined according to the proportion of resistant (RPM) and decomposable (DPM) plant material that it contains. Decomposition is controlled by soil moisture, temperature, acidity and oxygen content. These drivers are calculated from the input weather and soils data. Under aerobic conditions, decomposition results in the release of carbon dioxide. When the soil becomes anaerobic, methane is produced, and then oxidised in the aerobic zones of the soil. The amounts of plant available N (NO3- and NH4+) are determined by the C:N ratio of the decomposing organic matter pool; the pools are assumed to have a stable C:N ratio and if the ratio changes from this point, plant available N is either  immobilised or mineralised to maintain the stable ratio. Carbon and N are lost from the soil as dissolved organic matter (DOC and DON respectively). Plant available N is also lost from the system by nitrate leaching and by gaseous emissions as N2O, N2 and NH3. Greenhouse gas emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are thus all included in the model and can be used to estimate total emissions in C equivalents.

The accuracy of the model has been widely demonstrated at a range of sites, world-wide. For instance, the carbon component of the model was evaluated together with nine other soil organic matter models against long term experimental data from around the world. The plots of simulated and measured data show the model performs well within a wide range of conditions, while statistical analyses indicate that the simulations are generally within experimental error.

 

The methodology for linking the soil organic matter model into a DGVM was established in the recent EU funded ATEAM project. A soft link between the soil organic matter model and the DGVM was established by communicating between the models using files. This allowed the impact on soil C stocks of projected changes in climate, net primary production, land use and technology to be simulated. The work suggested that the biggest impact on soil C stocks was land use change, with projected changes in C stocks from Western Europe of 0 to +27% in forests, -44 to +25% in grassland, and -53 to -39% in arable land. 

These simulations determined the impacts of projected changes in climate, net primary production, land use and technology on the soil C stock, but did not feedback the impact of changes in greenhouse gas emissions from the soil to net primary production and climate; for this we need a hard link to the DGVM and GCM. The development of the soil module for linking into the DGVM is now complete, and feedbacks between the soil and plant components are being established. Simulations using the linked models will be completed in the near future, so significantly reducing the uncertainty in our estimates of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

 

JULES web site link: http://www.jchmr.org/jules/description/parameter.html

QUERCC web site link: http://nerc-quercc.group.shef.ac.uk/

 

3) TSEC-Biosys

The aim of the TSEC-BIOSYS consortium , coordinated by Imperial College London’s Centre for Energy Policy and Technology, part of the College’s new Centre for Environmental Policy, is to develop a framework for whole systems analysis and research on bioenergy that will lead to credible scenarios and a roadmap for the development of the UK’s bioenergy sector. The research will: (i) analyse the potential bioenergy demand and supply in the UK in the stationary and transport energy sectors; (ii) assess the implications and sustainability of large-scale bioenergy use and its potential contribution to UK energy and environmental objectives; and (iii) identify bottlenecks and suggest measures relevant to technology and policy innovation, stakeholder involvement and bioenergy development. The analysis covers the period to 2050, with the modelling focusing on 2010, 2020 and 2030. The project will conduct innovative multi and inter-disciplinary research from a whole systems perspective.

TSEC-BIOSYS brings together natural and social scientists, engineers and economists from leading UK research organisations, with demonstrated expertise in bioenergy or key complementary skills. Their research will be complemented by inputs from a network of organisations from the energy, bioenergy and agricultural industries, trade associations, financial organisations, NGOs, UK and EU policy institutions, international organisations, regional / local authorities and other research organisations. The project will also build on research findings from EPSRC Supergen Bioenergy and Distributed Generation, EPSRC SUE Waste, ESRC RELU, DEFRA bioenergy crop networks, Carbon Vision activities, as well as relevant information from EU and international bioenergy activities. TSEC-BIOSYS will provide authoritative and independent answers on technical, economic, environmental and social issues related to the development of bioenergy in the UK. Its outputs will be directly relevant to stakeholders from the farming and forestry community, energy and bioenergy industry, government and non-government organisations, and to UK Energy Research Centre activities.

The specific research objectives are to:

  • Develop an integrated framework and methodology to: (i) analyse the potential evolution of bioenergy demand in the UK, and develop demand scenarios for bioenergy penetration in the short and long-term; (ii) model and analyse the supply options and possible transitions in bioenergy technologies and vectors in the UK, and assess the trade-offs between different pathways.
  • Develop and integrate UK modelling capabilities for: (i) the assessment of spatial and temporal biomass supply potential in the UK, incorporating crop science and management research, GIS-based biomass resource models, environmental impact and land-use economics models; (ii) the analysis of advanced bioenergy technologies and assessment of their development potential, and potential benefits to the UK.
  • Develop a sustainability framework to include local, regional and global considerations, stakeholder and social concerns, that will inform best practice guidelines, accreditation schemes, regulation, financial and social risk assessment and communication.
  • Assess the relevance of bioenergy to UK energy, environmental and agricultural policy objectives. In particular, assess the greenhouse gas abatement potential of bioenergy chains, their potential contribution to GHG abatement for different final energy demand categories (bioenergy ‘wedges’), and the related GHG abatement costs.
  • Determine technological, industrial, institutional and policy innovation requirements for an ‘optimal’ development of bioenergy.

The research outputs will include: (i) transparent and relevant information that can be used by the UKERC in setting bioenergy R&D strategies and by the Government to regulate the bioenergy sector and develop broader energy policies; (ii) a systematic framework for involving stakeholders in the development of a roadmap for the growth of the UK’s bioenergy sector and information that will assist the long-term development of a bioenergy industry.

TSEC-Biosys web site link: http://www.tsec-biosys.ac.uk/

 

4) PICCMAT

 

Agriculture, climate change and rural development: when agriculture plays a role in climate change mitigation

In the Kyoto and post-Kyoto Protocol contexts, the European Commission wants the agricultural sector to contribute to the cutting of greenhouse gases emissions. The Policy Incentives for Climate Change Mitigation Agricultural Techniques (PICCMAT) research project (DG RTD/FP6), launched in January 2007, aims to identify farming practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and to suggest policy instruments to support the necessary changes in land management to stakeholders and policy makers. Ten European organisations, bringing together internationally recognised experts in the agriculture and environment field, will work jointly for two years on this project, co-financed by the European Commission.

Climate change is one of the main concerns of our modern civilisation. Agriculture, like every human activity, has an impact on climate and, as a consequence, must seek solutions to mitigate this impact. Agriculture is commonly estimated to be responsible for 9% of total greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. Indeed, farming needs fossil fuel energy (for machinery, for fertilisers and pesticides manufacturing, for heating of buildings and processing of products, etc.), farming releases methane (CH4) from soils (for example by draining of peat soils, or by the use of water in rice production), and farming practices also release nitrous oxide (N2O) from soils. Globally, agriculture is the main source of nitrous oxide and methane emissions to the atmosphere, two major greenhouse gases. On the other hand, there is a large potential for climate change mitigation in agriculture through carbon sequestration into soils.

One of the priorities of the EC Rural Development Strategy 2007-2013 is to support actions to mitigate climate change. This includes actions favouring major changes in land use, such as a switch to growing biomass crops, afforestation or significant changes in livestock production approaches. However, less substantial changes to existing agricultural practices towards optimised land management can also have a positive climate change mitigating effect, while also being beneficial to soil condition. This includes for example zero- or reduced-tillage techniques, use of deep-rooting crops, different types of set-aside, conversion of arable to grassland (including field strips), improved rotations, winter cover, maintenance of terraces etc. These smaller-scale measures, that can be widely applied at individual farm level, form the focus of the PICCMAT project.

The PICCMAT project, initiated by the European Commission through its sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, has been developed by an international consortium of research and consulting organisations covering ten European countries. After an EU-wide screening of the existing scientific literature, the team members will assess the effectiveness (feasibility and cost efficiency) for climate change mitigation of a range of possible changes to land management practices. The most promising mitigation options will then be tested in the field through case-studies in six European agricultural regions, with the aim to identify potential barriers to their implementation and the best incentives the Commission could propose. The PICCMAT partners will then formulate policy recommendations for an introduction into the Common Agricultural Policy, focusing on two types of policy incentives: funding via agri-environmental measures (Rural Development Regulation) or obligation of implementation through the cross-compliance system (in which farmers receive their complete annual subsidies only if they respect certain environmental constraints).

The project is closely followed by the European Commission DG Research and an Advisory Board consisting of stakeholders, EC DG agriculture and DG Environment, and scientists. Consultation with stakeholders and communication of the results to the interested public will be a key element of PICCMAT: stakeholders, in particular farmers and environmental organisations, will be engaged at an early stage of the project. The general public will also be informed on the project issues, especially through the project website

For more information please visit our website or contact Olivier Beucher, from Baastel, coordinator of the project (agriculture@baastel.be) or the UK project partner at the University of Aberdeen (pete.smith@abdn.ac.uk).

PICCMAT web site link: www.climatechangeintelligence.org/piccmat

 

 

5) CarboEurope-IP

Summary

Aim

CarboEurope-IP aims to understand and quantify the present terrestrial carbon balance of Europe and the associated uncertainty at local, regional and continental scale. This means to

  • determine the European carbon balance with its spatial and temporal patterns
  • understand the controlling processes and mechanisms of carbon cycling in European ecosystems and how these are affected by climate change and variability and human management
  • develop an observation system to detect changes in atmospheric CO2 concentrations and ecosystem carbon stocks related to the European commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.

Approach

In order to achieve these aims, CarboEurope-IP addresses the three major topics:

  • Determination of the carbon balance of the European continent, its geographical patterns, and changes over time. This is achieved by (1) executing a strategically focussed set of surface based ecological measurements of carbon pools and CO2 exchange, (2) further enhancement of an atmospheric high precision observation system for CO2 and other trace gases, (3) execution of a regional high spatial resolution experiment, and (4) integration of these components by means of innovative data assimilation systems, bottom-up process modelling and top-down inverse modelling. The key innovation of the CarboEurope-IP is in its conception as to apply single comprehensive experimental strategy, and its integration into a comprehensive carbon data assimilation framework. It is solving the scientific challenge of quantifying the terrestrial carbon balance at different scales and with known, acceptable uncertainties. The increase in spatial and temporal resolution of the observational and modelling program will allow for the first time a consistent application of a multiple constraint approach of bottom-up and top-down estimates to determine the terrestrial carbon balance of Europe with the geographical patterns and variability of sources and sinks.
  • Enhanced understanding of the controlling mechanisms of carbon cycling in European ecosystems, and the impact of climate change and variability, and changing land management on the European carbon balance. This is achieved by (1) the partitioning of carbon fluxes into their constituent parts (assimilation, respiration, fossil fuel burning), at local, regional and continental scales, (2) the quantification of the effects of management on net ecosystem carbon exchange based on data synthesis, and (3) the development, evaluation and optimisation of ecosystem process models.
  • Design and development of an observation system to detect changes of carbon stocks and carbon fluxes related to the European commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. This is achieved by (1) atmospheric measurements and a modelling framework to detect changes in atmospheric CO2 concentrations during the time frame of a Kyoto commitment period, and (2) the outline of a carbon accounting system for the second Commitment period based on measuring carbon fluxes, stock changes by soil and biomass inventories, vegetation properties by remote sensing, and atmospheric concentrations.

History

CarboEurope emerged as a cluster of European projects in 2000. Since then, it consolidated an interdisciplinary research community in the fields of different ecosystems, atmosphere, measurements and modelling. The CarboEurope-IP bundles and expands on these earlier projects and allows for the first time a harmonised and consistent gathering of data and integration of space and time scales.

Partners

The consortium consists of 61 Contractor Institutes from 17 European countries, plus about 30 Associated Partners within Europe and further Collaborating Institutes outside Europe . The Max-Planck-Institute for Biogeochemistry , Germany , is project co-ordinator. CarboEurope-IP is open to associate further partners.

Resources

The project is supported by the European Commission, Directorate-General Research, Sixth Framework Programme, Priority 1.1.6.3 Global Change and Ecosystem, Contract No. GOCE-CT-2003-505572. The budget consists of 16.3 million Euro from the European Commission and about 30 million Euro from national funding.

CarboEurope-IP web site link: http://www.carboeurope.org/

6) NitroEurope-IP

The NitroEurope IP – or NEU for short – addresses the major question: What is the effect of reactive nitrogen (Nr) supply on net greenhouse gas budgets for Europe? The objectives are to:

  • establish robust datasets of N fluxes and net greenhouse-gas exchange (NGE) in relation to C-N cycling of representative European ecosystems, as a basis to investigate interactions and assess long-term change,
  • quantify the effects of past and present global changes (climate, atmospheric composition, land-use/land-management) on CN cycling and NGE,
  • simulate the observed fluxes of N and NGE, their interactions and responses to global change/land-management decisions, through refinement of plot-scale models,
  • quantify multiple N and C fluxes for contrasting European landscapes, including interactions between farm-scale management, atmospheric and water dispersion, and consideration of the implications for net fluxes and strategies,
  • scale up Nr and NGE fluxes for terrestrial ecosystems to regional and European levels, considering spatial variability and allowing assessment of past, present and future changes,
  • assess uncertainties in the European model results and use these together with independent measurement/inverse modelling approaches for verification of European N2O and CH4 inventories and refinement of IPCC approaches.

These objectives are met by a programme that integrates:

  1. an observing system for N fluxes and pools [Component 1]
  2. a network of manipulation experiments [Component 2]
  3. plot-scale C-N modelling [Component 3]
  4. landscape analysis [Component 4]
  5. European up-scaling [Component 5] and
  6. uncertainty and verification of European estimates [Component 6].

In addition to that, the project organisation comprises cross-cutting activities addressing management, databases, training and dissemination.

NEU will advance the fundamental understanding of C-N interactions at different scales and deliver: process-based models, landscape-level assessments, European maps of C-N pools, Nr fluxes and NGE, and independent verification of GHG inventories, as required under the Kyoto Protocol.

NitroEurope-IP web site link: http://www.nitroeurope.eu/

The 13 consortium members and 3 associated organisations are: Imperial College London (Centre for Energy Policy and Technology (coordinator) – ICEPT, Centre for Process Systems Engineering – CPSE), University of Surrey (Centre for Environmental Strategy) – UniS, University of Southampton (School of Biological Sciences) – UoSo, University College London (Bartlett School of Planning) – UCL, University of Glamorgan (Sustainable Environment Research Centre) – UoG, University of Birmingham (School of Engineering) – UoB, University of Aberdeen (School of Biological Sciences) – UoA, Rothamsted Research – RR, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology – CEH, University of Warwick (Process Technology Group) – UoW, Institute for European Environmental Policy – IEEP, Scottish Agricultural College – SAC; Associated organisations: University of Edinburgh (School of Geosciences) – UoE, Forest Research – FR, Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management – ECCM.